Climate
The Climate window can be opened from World/Climates, or from the Object window in the tree under World Objects.
The climate dialog allows you to define what types of weather a defined Worldspace will experience, as well as the behavior of sky objects such as the sun, moons, and stars.
Contents
Climates
On the left side of the dialog box is a list of all Climate EditorIDs defined for the loaded master file and any plug-in. To create a new climate, right-click in the box and select "new" from the popup. To create a new climate based off an existing climate, right-click the climate you wish to use as a basis and select "duplicate". To delete an existing climate, right-click that climate and select delete. To see what Worldspace(s) use the selected climate, right-click the climate and select Use Info.
To see the FormIDs for the climates hover over the right most separator bar and hold left-click and drag it to the right when the arrows appear.
Sun / Sun Glare
Choose a texture for the sun disc and sun glare. A preview of the selected texture will appear in the window above the selection button. Only valid textures with .dds extension can be selected. If no texture is defined for the sun disc, no sun will appear.
Moons
There are 2 moons in the game: Masser, the larger of the 2 moons, and Secunda, the smaller. For each moon, check the check box next to its name for it to appear in the game. Uncheck it if you do not wish for it to appear.
The phase length slider determines the length, in days, of each moon phase. There are 8 phases in the game so whatever number you choose, multiply it by 8 to determine the length, in days, of a full cycle.
The phase length slider does not affect the moons rise/set cycle that determines when the moons rise and set for any given day. This follows a different 5 day cycle that cannot be altered, and that starts on the first day of the game as having both moons present. Over the course of the cycle, Masser rises and sets at the same time, and Secunda rises and sets earlier as the cycle passes, until it rises at the same time as Masser again on the first day of the next cycle.
The full moon phase cycle for default phase length is 24 days, and is mapped out below. S = Secunda, M = Masser. The > symbols are used to show the relative lengths of time between moons appearing on any given day.
GameDaysPassed Moons Appeared Shadowed 0 S>>>>>M&S None 1 S>M None 2 S>>M None 3 S>>>M Bottom 1/4 4 S>>>>M Bottom 1/4 5 S>>>>>M&S Bottom 1/4 6 S>M Bottom 1/2 7 S>>M Bottom 1/2 8 S>>>M Bottom 1/2 9 S>>>>M Bottom 3/4 10 S>>>>>M&S Bottom 3/4 11 S>M Bottom 3/4 12 S>>M All 13 S>>>M All 14 S>>>>M All 15 S>>>>>M&S Top 3/4 16 S>M Top 3/4 17 S>>M Top 3/4 18 S>>>M Top 1/2 19 S>>>>M Top 1/2 20 S>>>>>M&S Top 1/2 21 S>M Top 1/4 22 S>>M Top 1/4 23 S>>>M Top 1/4 24 S>>>>M None 25 S>>>>>M&S None 26 S>M None
Night Sky
Choose a valid NIF to be displayed as the night sky. This NIF will begin to alpha in during sunset, reaching full alpha after sunset is complete. It will begin to alpha out during sunrise, reaching a fully culled state after sunrise is complete.
Sunrise / Sunset
Use sliders to determine when sunrise begins and ends, and when sunset begins and ends.
Volatility
Use volatility slider to determine how often the weather should change in a Worldspace using this climate. A higher volatility means the weather will potentially change more often while a lower volatility will result in more static weather conditions.
Weather Types
Here is where you define what type of weather will be experienced using this climate. A list box of weather types and associated chances here defines which weather types are used and what the odds are that, when the system looks to change the weather, it will select that weather type.
To add a new weather type, select the weather type from the pull-down menu below the list box and click on the add button. To remove an existing weather type from the list, right-click on the row in the list box containing the weather you wish to remove and select "delete" from the popup menu. To change the chance for a given weather type, first select the weather by clicking on the row in the list box. Then, single-click again on that row and type in the number representing the percent chance for this weather. The numbers you choose should add up to 100, but if they don't, the system will simply calculate the odds based on the sum of all the chances.
